How liberals lost the fight

This episode of The News Agents explores the decline of liberalism in contemporary politics, arguing that liberalism—once a revolutionary force for individual rights, tolerance, and pluralism—has become a marginalized and often derided ideology. Adrian Wooldridge, journalist and author of 'Centrists of the World Unite: The Lost Genius of Liberalism', contends that liberalism's current crisis stems not from its failure, but from its own success: the very individualism and cosmopolitanism it championed have led to social atomization and a loss of shared meaning. He traces liberalism’s resilience through history, showing how it has repeatedly reinvented itself in times of crisis, and calls for a revival of its core principles—skepticism of power, tolerance, and individual dignity—while reasserting the importance of cultural values, civilizational continuity, and moral judgment. The episode examines how both the political right (e.g., Trump, Orban, Putin) and a radicalized left (e.g., identitarianism, 'woke' culture) have distorted liberalism, with the former rejecting pluralism and the latter undermining individual agency. Wooldridge warns that the rise of digital monopolies and illiberal powers like China further threaten liberal democracies, making a renewed, confident liberalism not just desirable but essential for survival in a world yearning for control and certainty.